


All I Can Do

by orphan_account



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Captivity, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Humiliation, Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied/Referenced Vivisection, Self-Sacrifice, badger cereal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 02:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6547093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"'Commencing dissection.'  The agent leaned over him with a scalpel, approached the bottom of his torso near his naval, and Danny wanted cry out, to run away, but he couldn’t move, <i>he couldn’t move</i>, and the scalpel was just about to touch his flesh and…</p><p>'Stop.'</p><p><i>It couldn’t be.</i>"</p><p> </p><p>Danny is rescued from captivity by the last person he expects to come to his aid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All I Can Do

His throat was raw from screaming, which he had only stopped because one of his captors threatened to remove his vocal cords.

“You can’t do that!” exclaimed the other one, straightening his white suit. “It” _(Danny cringed to hear himself referred to as “it” )_ “has an ecto-sonic ability which originates in the vocal cords—Code Name: Ghostly Wail. We must leave the vocal cords in tact for now to study it.”

“Yes,” said his associate, gritting his teeth. “ _Thank you_ for telling that to the specimen.”

“Oh,” said the other agent, before turning to face Danny. “Well, the point still stands. Shut up, ghost freak, or we’ll gag you. And this ecto-gag we’ve got is not particularly pleasant.”

So Danny was quiet as they slapped a device that bore a striking resemblance to the Specter Deflector around his waist—he cringed, but stifled his cry, as it shocked him—and he remained quiet as the clipped another, smaller version of the same device around his neck. “A shock collar, for extra assurance,” smirked one of the agents. “And just so you don’t get any ideas, both of these not only give us agency over activating or deactivating your ecto-abilities and not only do they monitor your vitals and other bodily functions, they’re also tracking devices.”

The Guys in White agents then thrust him into what they called an “observation room” but what Danny called a cell, albeit a cell with a one-sided mirror for one of its walls. Other than this, the room was composed entirely of concrete. 

_Oh God_ , thought Danny, bowels suddenly lurching in terror. _No one will ever find me here. By the time anyone notices I’m gone, I’ll be pieces of severed ectoplasm scattered around the cement._ There was a concrete block that he supposed was supposed to serve as a bed, though it has no mattress and no blankets. He sat on it, hugging his knees. 

There was also, Danny noticed eventually, no toilet. He held his piss as long as he can, crossing his legs, until he couldn’t any more. In the “mirror,” he saw a dark patch shaped like a human, and he banged against the glass. “Hey! I have to go to the bathroom!”

There was apparently a loud speaker in the room as well, because a voice spoke through it. “Urination or defecation?”

“I—what?”

“Do you need to urinate or defecate?”

“Ur-urinate.”

A small hole opened in the wall, revealing a sterile cup.

“Urinate into the cup, and then place it back.”

“Wh-what?”

“We are monitoring your bodily functions in preparation for our upcoming experiment. Please urinate into the cup.”

Unwilling, humiliated, yet unable to continue to hold his bladder, Danny complied, his face growing hot in shame, knowing that the figure on the other side of the mirror was watching him. 

The same panel opened later to reveal his meal—a loaf of _something_ —that smelled and tasted like vomit. He ate only after his stomach rumbled so much it ached, and then, holding his breath.

They demanded a stool sample before they would give him another meal. He refused initially, but then they shocked him with the collar. “Fine, fine!” He closed his eyes as he lowered the pants they had outfitted him in to do as they asked, trying to forget that he was being watched.

He ate again.

Later the same day, it seemed, though he could not know for sure because time was hard to track here, the door to his cell opened revealing two agents and a stretcher with restraints. “Undress and get on,” ordered one.

To piss and crap into a cup in front of one-sided glass through which he knew he was being watched had been bad enough; he could not conceive of stripping naked when he could see the agents watching him. “No.”

“Do it, ghost freak, or we’ll shock you. Or knock you out and undress you ourselves.”

“I—ARGH!” Danny was only able to hesitate for a moment before the collar zapped him painfully. “Fine!” He closed his eyes, in an unsuccessful attempt to forget that he was not alone, and removed everything but the belt and collar.

“Now, up here,” said the agent, who, when Danny opened his eyes was motioning to the stretcher.

“What—” but before he could ask the question, he was shocked again, and while he writhed without control of his body, one of the agents seized his naked body and thrust it harshly onto the stretcher, binding his wrists and ankles to it so that Danny couldn’t move, only thrash.

“Hey!” shouted Danny, as they started to wheel the stretcher out of the cell. “Hey, where are you taking me?!”

“It’s so _annoying_ ,” said one of the agents to another. “Too bad we can’t remove its vocal cords yet.”

“I’d save your screams if I were you, ghost,” said one of the other agents, smirking at Danny. “You’re gonna need them.”

Danny felt his stomach lurch again. He shut up.

Eventually they reached a room that appeared like an operating theater, to find six or seven other agents, each, it seemed, dressed for surgery, wearing a white lab coat and a white surgical facemask.

“Where do you want the specimen, sir?” asked one of the agents who had wheeled Danny in.

One of the agents in a coat and mask gestured to what seemed to be a surgical table—of course with restraints—situated at about sixty degrees from the ground. As they moved him toward it, removed him from the stretcher to bind him by the wrists, ankles, and this time, a sturdy leather strap tight across his forehead to immobilize his head, Danny noticed a large circular device facing him from the operating table. Terrified as he was—and he _was_ —the part of him who was the child of scientists had an itching, infuriating curiosity. _What was that device? An X-ray machine? An MRI?_

Once he was firmly on the table, the agents who had brought him on the stretcher left the room, closing the door behind them, leaving Danny with only the agents in lab coats and masks.

“Experimentation Log,” began the agent who seemed to be in charge into a microphone that he wore over his mask. “Project Ecto-Halfa. Experiment One: Exploratory Dissection, number one of two.”

 _Dissection_. Danny felt a powerful urge to vomit. _One of two? How were they going to dissect him_ twice? _They knew he wasn’t really dead, and thus that he could still be killed! And Experiment_ One _? Dissecting him was only the beginning?!_

“In dissection number one, specimen is in its human form. Examination results will be compared to dissection number two, when the specimen is in its ecto-form. So as to accurately examine sensory input mechanisms, no anesthetic is being used; the specimen is instead physically immobilized.” 

_No anesthetic. Oh God. Oh God oh God oh God…_

“Localized pressure will be used to prevent loss of blood or other bodily fluid so as to prevent expiration.” 

Another agent hit a switch on the circular device above Danny, and he felt a wave of pressure hit him evenly across his body, pressing down on everything. He felt his skin pushed back, his eyelids forced open, his lips pushed back against his face. He remained nauseous, but now, he knew, if any vomit were try to leave his mouth it wouldn’t be able to. The pressure would ensure it remained firmly lodged in his mouth. 

_Oh God._

“Commencing dissection.” The agent leaned over him with a scalpel, approached the bottom of his torso near his naval, and Danny wanted cry out, to run away, but he couldn’t move, _he couldn’t move_ , and the scalpel was just about to touch his flesh and…

“Stop.” 

_It couldn’t be_.

The agent about to dissect Danny turned away from him and toward the intruder in annoyance. “Excuse me, but this is a secure— _Vlad Masters_?!”

“Yes. I was told I could find the director of Project Ecto-Halfa in here.”

“That would be me,” said the same agent. “But, as I said, this is a secure area, and we are mid-experiment, as you can see. So _please_ vacate the premises, or I shall have you escorted out.”

“Before you proceed,” said Vlad. “I think you will be interested in my proposition regarding your operation.”

“We are _mid-experiment_!”

“Then cease your experiment! As is spelled out clearly here,” and Vlad produced an official-looking document, “in exchange for your release of Daniel Fenton, I will surrender a specimen of much higher value to you.”

Several of the agents laughed, and the director of the project raised an eyebrow. “With all due respect, I highly doubt that you have a specimen of higher value to our enterprise than this one.”

“I beg to differ.” And in front of their eyes, he summoned the black rings around his waist and transformed into his ghost self.

At once, several of the agents gasped, Danny exclaimed: “No!”, and the directing agent ordered: “Seize him!”

But Vlad, it seemed to Danny, was prepared for this. He flew into the air, where the Guys in White agents, who, because this was an operating theater, lacked their usual arsenal, were powerless to reach him. 

“All in good time,” said Vlad. “Once you sign this document. As you’ll see, it states that I, Vlad Masters, will become the property of you, the Federal Agency of the Guys in the White, for the express purpose of scientific and preventative research, in accordance with the Federal Anti-Ecto Act. As such, I will willingly cooperate with all such research, whether through questioning, experimentation, or other means. In exchange, you will release Daniel Fenton from your custody, and make no attempt to reacquire him. If any such attempts are made, you lose your authority over me. In the case that I am still alive, this would result in my immediate release under the terms of the Federal Anti-Ecto Act, and, regardless of whether I am alive or not, any and all research acquired by use of me will be invalidated, and consequently unpublishable.” 

“No!” exclaimed Danny, forcing his lips to move despite the pressure that still emanated from the device hanging over him. He suddenly pictured _Vlad_ naked on this table under the scalpel without anesthetic, and _Vlad_ in the cell, and _Vlad_ having to piss and crap in front of these _damn_ agents. Danny had never liked the man—they were rivals, after all—but he would _never_ wish this on him. And he wouldn’t let him do this for _him_!

Vlad turned to look at Danny directly for the first time since he arrived. His face, even if in its ghost form was totally impassive, and when his met Danny’s eyes met Danny’s, Danny couldn’t determine the emotion in them. When he spoke, his voice was in monotone. “Hush, Daniel.” 

“But—”

“Hush!” Vlad turned back to the agents. “You should also know that this document has both been notarized, and that several of my lawyers have co-signed and have copies on file. Should you decide to sign, they will perform periodic checks on Daniel Fenton to ensure that you are fulfilling your terms of the agreement, and, if you do not, will enforce the proper legal consequences. 

“So,” he transformed back into his human form and landed gracefully on the ground. “Do we have an agreement?”

The agents looked at Vlad agog for a moment, until the one in charge finally spoke. “W-Why will you be of more value to us than _this_ specimen?”

“I have had my abilities for twenty years longer than Daniel Fenton has had his. I understand my abilities, and will be able to offer my own insight if asked. And, assuming the terms of our contract are met,” said Vlad. “I will be cooperative and willing throughout.”

The agent didn’t speak for a moment, considering, it seemed. Finally, he slowly opened his mouth to speak again. “V-Very well.”

Vlad handed him a pen, and as the agent signed the document, Vlad’s eyes met Danny’s again. “I’m sorry,” he said, speaking nominally to the agents, but continuing to look at Danny. “That it took me so long to get here. That you were able to progress so far on an experiment…that you will ultimately have to restart. The documents took some time to draw up.”

Neither the agents nor Danny responded.

Once the document was signed, the director gestured toward Danny. One of the other agents approached the surgical table, switched the device above Danny off, reliving the immense pressure, and undid the restraints so that Danny slipped off the table. Steadying himself, he flexed his arms. 

“We will all go to the central processing area so that we can discharge the first specimen, and process…you,” the directing agent said. 

When they arrived, one of the agents ordered Vlad to strip out of his suit, and Danny expected him to protest, but surprisingly the man did as he was told, appearing naked before the group of several agents—and Danny—without complaint or comment. 

As the agents removed the collar and belt from Danny, the boy turned to Vlad. “I don’t understand! Why are you doing this for me?!”

“I told you, Daniel— _GAH_!” Vlad was interrupted by a shock, to which he involuntarily reacted, when the Guys in White slapped the belt and collar around him. “I told you that I wanted to be a father to you. I meant what I said.”

“But…I never renounced my dad! Wasn’t that your condition?”

“It’s true that I didn’t want to compete with Jack Fenton,” answered Vlad, pausing to put on the loose clothing that the agents ordered him to put over the collar and belt. “But, as it stands, he cannot do this for you. I can. And it's no less than any father would.”

This left Danny so shocked, so stricken, that he was silent as Vlad was marched to an observation room. Danny almost regretted it as he was handed clothing, dressed, and was escorted from the Guys in White’s premises.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
